“Illustrators of the Future” has existed since 1988 and is an international talent contest in the field of science fiction, in parallel to “Writers of the Future”. Portuguese will receive award in Hollywood.
Portuguese illustrator André Mata will be one of the winners to receive the “Illustrator of the Future” award at the “Writers and Illustrators of the Future Awards” ceremony, which will take place in Hollywood, on October 22nd.
By winning the quarterly competition “Illustrators of the Future”, the Portuguese artist guaranteed a monetary prize, the publication of a work in the volume of the contest winners and presence in a professional ‘workshop’, which will take place during the week before the ceremony.
“It is an extraordinary recognition for me in an area that I admire a lot, science fiction and fantasy,” he told the agency Lusa André Mata, referring that the victory in the competition was “unexpected”.
The “Illustrators of the Future” has existed since 1988 and is an international talent contest in the field of science fiction, in parallel to the “Writers of the Future”. The latter was the initial competition, created in 1983 by L. Ron Hubbard, the prolific science fiction author who founded the Church of Scientology.
“The judges are people I have been following for several years and are well known,” said André Mata. “It is great that the work is recognized in this way”.
According to the illustrator, the one-week ‘workshop’ he will be participating in in October aims to help catapult the winning artists.
“These are‘ workshops ’related to the industry, in which they will advise people to settle down and make a career in the industry,” he described.
Since the 2020 ceremony has been canceled due to the covid-19 pandemic, the fall gala will be twofold and will distinguish the 2019 and 2020 winners for editions 36 and 37 of the competition.
André Mata’s victory resulted in him being hired for a job related to one of the stories he won last year, and will be published, this year, in the number of winners no. 37. This job, in turn, will enter the grand final contest, Golden Brush Award, which will bring together all the winners and has a monetary prize of five thousand dollars.
For the Portuguese illustrator, the opportunity is valuable in launching a career he recently started, after graduating in Illustration at the University of Solent in Southampton, UK. Despite considering that it is possible to succeed in this area from Portugal, the approach to the entertainment epicenter is precious.
“It will always be easier to be close to the industry, because it will be easier to develop the knowledge network,” he explained. “The ideal is to be there close to the industry, to go to festivals and conventions, to meet the art directors. It’s always easier that way ”.
Before embarking on this career, André Mata was a member of the Air Force’s General Staff, where he spent five years before deciding to change his life.
“I always felt that I should do arts,” said the 35-year-old illustrator, who said he did not necessarily have a preferred genre.
“I have a comprehensive taste, not only science fiction and fantasy, but also portrait, landscape, conceptual design or conceptual art, art that is developed for the film field. I see myself in a variety of styles and themes ”, he described.
With an inspiration that “comes from nature, light effects” and what you imagine when reading, the victory in the “Illustrators of the Future” competition turned out to be a validation of the risk you took when you left a stable job to start again.
“I have my own idea of what illustration is and what I want for my work”, said André Mata.
The artist’s work will be published in the anthology “L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 37 ”, edited by Galaxy Press.
@ Observador
